Insights
Our Insights consist of original content created by our team, clients, and partners. The original ideas cover topics relevant to the industries we serve and allow our team to engage with industry leaders about the topics that matter to them.
A Touchy Subject One Year Later: Reflections on Covid and the Hotel Industry from Scott Hansen
Over a year ago one of our clients and a leader in the hospitality industry, Scott Hansen, guest wrote our first blog article offering his insights and predictions on how the Covid crisis would impact the hotel industry. Since then, we’ve learned much more about how the pandemic impacts various industries. We asked Scott to sit down with us and offer his insights again with a year of experience to draw upon.
Missing the Watercooler Moments: Guidance on Effective Mentoring Remote Workers
Remote working is here to stay for millions of people, especially for Millennials and Gen Z. Being physically distant from their office allows for greater flexibility, but also can diminish employee interaction and development. In this Insight, Business Development Strategist and Education Services Manager, Jake Hannigan, offers advice on how to effectively mentor remote workers.
Diversity and Inclusion from Ideas to Reality: An Interview with Ed Simon
June this year represents not only LGBTQ Pride month, but also a year since the world responded to the murder of George Floyd in the form of civic engagement, protest, and in many cases new awareness and initiatives around diversity and inclusion in some of the world’s largest organizations. Like many companies, a year ago we issued our BLM statement and tried to better understand what role we could play to further racial equity. Now, we reflect on our effectiveness and what we can do to maintain momentum a year after the statements were made. For this Insight, we interviewed an expert on the topic, Ed Simon, to continue learning how companies can meaningfully become more inclusive beyond statements of support.
What to Do About the Rise of Administrative Duties in Higher Education
Committees in higher education are intended to improve outcomes and foster accountability through shared governance. At their best, committees empower faculty and improve learning outcomes for students. Unfortunately, due to a lack of standards and guidelines, committees often do not live up to their potential and can even be a hindrance to educating and governing. In this Insight, Education Associates, Jacob Dolence and Karen Yoshino, and Education Services Manager, Jake Hannigan, discuss the challenges of committee work and outline how to make committees live up to their potential.
Streamlining Higher Education’s Curriculum Approval Process
As the challenges faced by higher education continue to evolve at an ever rapid pace, institutions must add and update curriculum to remain competitive. Yet the current curriculum approval process inhibits how fast curriculums can adapt, and consequently, prevents institutions from rapidly adapting. In this Insight, Education Services Manager, Jake Hannigan, and Education Associates Jacob Dolence and Karen Yoshino discuss what is wrong with the current curriculum approval process and what can be done to improve it.
The Future Potential of Lockdown’s Digital Investment
In 2020, organizations made rush investments into their digital infrastructure in the wake of COVID-19. The end of the pandemic is finally in sight, but the need for quality digital infrastructure will remain. In this Insight, Program Director for Van Allen Strategies, Namita Duggal and Business Development Strategist, Jake Hannigan, discuss how organizations should leverage their investments into digital infrastructure post COVID-19.
Intersections of Medicine and Mobile
Diagnostic testing on mobile devices is leading to a new revolution in healthcare. In this Insight, we discuss how big data is shaping the next evolution in healthcare, and how artificial intelligence can be leveraged to improve outcomes. Mobile phones are one of the fastest growing sectors in the technology industry. And this growth continues to significantly impact medicine. From using the smartphone’s GPS tracker to monitor patients with Alzheimer’s disease to using smartphones connected via Bluetooth to a single-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) device. Technology is being used to provide diagnostics in the field, thereby improving patients' health and reducing healthcare costs. Thanks to the ability for add-ons and apps, smartphones with their small screens, camera, sensors, flash and microphone have turned into medical devices.
Lessons from China’s Innovations in E-Commerce
The United States was once the undisputed leader in the future of commerce. However, it is now China that is taking the lead in the next wave of innovation in e-commerce. In this Insight we discuss how business owners can take lessons learned from China and the US to improve their competitiveness in the new frontier of commerce.
Beyond Speculation: How Companies are Adopting Cryptocurrency
The recent increase in value of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin have led to continued speculations about its stability, and the extent to which its recent meteoric price increases reflect speculation vs. its role as a transactional currency. In a one month period leading up to this publication, Bitcoin dropped 25% in value then increased 50%. Over the same period, Dogecoin, originally invented as a joke, was caught up in price fluctuations that also impacted stock prices. But over recent years companies have adopted cryptocurrency for uses beyond speculative investment.
Reflections on 2020
The year 2020 will be remembered as a year of massive change for companies and individuals. In this post, we discuss what we as a company learned from the past year and how these lessons can be applied to work moving forward.
Promise and Peril: Broadband & Cybercrime in the age of COVID
Stay at home orders due to COVID-19 have forced humanity to depend on the internet like never before. But for billions of people around the world, partially in developing countries, internet access remains elusive, starving those in need of its resources and opportunities. For those fortunate enough to have access, slow broadband and cybersecurity threats have diminished the promise of the internet. In this insight, Program Director for Van Allen Strategies, Namita Duggal and Business Development Strategist, Jake Hannigan, discuss how the US can improve access to broadband and increase cyber security.
How Community Colleges can Drive Post COVID Economic Recovery
As the world continues to change at a breakneck speed, those who thrive in the 21st century are those who are able quickly adapt to changing and unpredictable circumstances. In this insight, Education Services Manager, Jake Hannigan discusses how community colleges are uniquely suited to be a cornerstone to economic recovery and future workforce development.